32:1 So Jacob went on his way and the angels of God met him. 32:2 When Jacob saw them, he exclaimed, “This is the camp of God!” So he named that place Mahanaim.
32:3 Jacob sent messengers on ahead to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the region of Edom. 32:4 He commanded them, “This is what you must say to my lord Esau: ‘This is what your servant Jacob says: I have been staying with Laban until now. 32:5 I have oxen, donkeys, sheep, and male and female servants. I have sent this message to inform my lord, so that I may find favor in your sight.’”
32:6 The messengers returned to Jacob and said, “We went to your brother Esau. He is coming to meet you and has four hundred men with him.” 32:7 Jacob was very afraid and upset. So he divided the people who were with him into two camps, as well as the flocks, herds, and camels. 32:8 “If Esau attacks one camp,” he thought, “then the other camp will be able to escape.”
32:9 Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O Lord, you said to me, ‘Return to your land and to your relatives and I will make you prosper.’ 32:10 I am not worthy of all the faithful love you have shown your servant. With only my walking stick I crossed the Jordan, but now I have become two camps. 32:11 Rescue me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, as well as the mothers with their children. 32:12 But you said, ‘I will certainly make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand on the seashore, too numerous to count.’”
32:13 Jacob stayed there that night. Then he sent as a gift to his brother Esau 32:14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 32:15 thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 32:16 He entrusted them to his servants, who divided them into herds. He told his servants, “Pass over before me, and keep some distance between one herd and the next.” 32:17 He instructed the servant leading the first herd, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘To whom do you belong? Where are you going? Whose herds are you driving?’ 32:18 then you must say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They have been sent as a gift to my lord Esau. In fact Jacob himself is behind us.’”
32:19 He also gave these instructions to the second and third servants, as well as all those who were following the herds, saying, “You must say the same thing to Esau when you meet him. 32:20 You must also say, ‘In fact your servant Jacob is behind us.’” Jacob thought,
“I will first appease him by sending a gift ahead of me. After that I will meet him. Perhaps he will accept me.” 32:21 So the gifts were sent on ahead of him while he spent that night in the camp.
32:22 During the night Jacob quickly took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 32:23 He took them and sent them across the stream along with all his possessions. 32:24 So Jacob was left alone. Then a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 32:25 When the man saw that he could not defeat Jacob, he struck the socket of his hip so the socket of Jacob’s hip was dislocated while he wrestled with him.
32:26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for
the dawn is breaking.” “I will not let you go,” Jacob replied, “unless you bless me.” 32:27 The man asked him, “What is your name?” He answered, “Jacob.” 32:28 “No longer will your name be Jacob,” the man told him, “but Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have prevailed.”
32:29 Then Jacob asked, “Please tell me your name.” “Why do you ask my name?” the man replied. Then he blessed Jacob there. 32:30 So Jacob named the place Peniel, explaining, “Certainly I have seen God face to face and have survived.”
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Excellent Commentary
This is one of my favorite chapters yet, for several reasons. I will start with what I find most fascinating, t he name Israel. It can mean God fights, or that God will fight for. I have also heard it to mean fights with God or struggles with God. I think the NET Bible's translation is probably more accurate since God's promise was with Jacob and not against but I also like the second meaning. Many probably speculate that it was intended to remind the nation of Israel that they won and deserve the promise. I think it is synonymous with the everlasting struggle between God and His chosen people. Either way (or both) it marks the change from Jacob to Israel. I look the meaning of Jacob back up and it means heal-catcher or supplanter (or rather one who is in a place illegally).
ReplyDeleteNext item: Jacob's continued fear, this time with his brother Esau. After spouting off to Laban that no matter what Laban offered as wages Jacob would have been successful because God was with him. Now it appears that God is not so much for Jacob because he has to offer Esau a bribe (in at least three parts) and Jacob splits up his remaining possessions into two camps (I am sure Rachel was in the last camp - sarcasm intended).
Next item: Jacob prays to God. I think that this is the first time it is recorded that Jacob prays to God. But the request of the prayer is amazing because Jacob prays for protection for himself and his possessions. He doesn't pray for forgiveness, wisdom or guidance, a softening of Esau's heart, or even God's will or glory. But he does mention to God that He has a promise to keep.
Everyone few days of reading the Old Testament and I think, "Thank God for the cast of characters we have been given in the Bible. They are our heroes but they are also a bunch of screw ups and God thought highly of them - I guess He must think highly of me too."